Tel Aviv is flat (sort of)...Jerusalem Surprisingly More Organized

Today I ran in the Tel Aviv [half] Marathon. I came expecting a flatter running route (as compared to hilly Jerusale), and more organized. First of all,  due to the flatness, even with the humidity factor, ran  a personal  best,  1 hour and 53  minutes.  But more organized...nope.

Jerusalem often gets  a bum rap...and in many ways it  deserves  it!  But lets not get into that  now.  Lets talk about Tel Aviv, often held out as the paragon of the modern Israeli city. We in Jerusalem talk about the flight to the "center of the country" but we really mean Tel Aviv (center in the psychological sense, Jerusalem is more mid-way from top to bottom of the country). Tel Aviv has skyscrapers, a municipality that pours money into culture and education (and of course has the beach, we will never have that!).

But running today in Tel Aviv I saw the city and its management in a different light. Start with the race...it was a balagan (big mess) in the beginning, noone knew where to go for sign-in, where to stand, etc. And then during the race, they ran out of water! Thank God it was not hot (even started raining at one point). And then I realized that the front runners were going to come right at us...yes, the route was one way, turn around (at Jaffa) and return. Meaning the front runners faced a wave of us coming at them...with no real divider between us.  I actually collided with one runner, as I tried to reach for water (it was on the wrong side, on the left).

At the end, again a balagan, they ran out of medals (after I finished, thank goodness). Noone knew where to return the electronic chip. It was not clear where there was water. And there was no food (in Jerusalem we are treated to bread, olive oil, zatar, ice pops, and a lot of water!).

So lets remember that perception is not always the same as reality. Looking forward to Jerusalem [half] Marathon....